Digital Strategies and Strategic Alignment

Increased digitalization and increased use of digital technologies in a multitude of applications affect companies and their environments. Adapting to the change is important to keep competitive advantage. Generally, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the manufacturing industry are lagging behind in digitalization and digital maturity in comparison to larger companies and other industries. The purpose of the study was to investigate how SMEs within the manufacturing industry are affected by and work with digital technologies, and especially if they have digital strategies and how those digital strategies are aligned with the overall business strategy, given their existence. Through a qualitative and abductive approach, a multi case-study was performed with six participating manufacturing SMEs based in the region of Skåne, Sweden. Through qualitative interviews with key executives empirical data was retrieved from the case companies which together with a literature study gave the data input for the study. When analyzing the empirical data, the Strategic Alignment Model by Henderson and Venkatraman and especially the derivatives of the model proposed by Luftman and Gutierrez and Serrano respectively were used. It was found that the case companies generally lacked digital strategies and had a low level of strategic alignment according to the theoretical models employed. However, although the case companies, according to the theoretical frameworks, generally did not work with explicit digital strategies and had a low level of strategic alignment, it was found that they utilized digital technologies to various degrees and viewed digital technologies as tools to achieve their overall strategic goals. Further, it was found that the specific term ‘digitalization’ was generally not used by the case companies. During the project, it was found that the theoretical frameworks used for the analysis were not fully applicable for SMEs in the manufacturing industry, and subsequently an evaluation of the framework was performed. A number of factors and drivers explaining why the case companies had not developed specific digital strategies, but also explaining what prioritizations had been made when investing in and developing digital technologies, were also found